King Henry VIII as a result of the
reformation, declared himself the supreme head of the Church of England.His act of supremacy states, “Albeit the
king’s majesty justly and rightly is, and ought to be, supremehead of the Church of England, and is so
recognized by the clergy of this realm in their convocations;yet, nevertheless, for conformation and
corroboration thereof, and for increase of virtue in Christ’s religion within
this realm of

England…..shall be taken, accepted, and
reputed the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England.”Thus began the Church of England.The Church of England set out to break away
from the Catholic Church and introduce reforms in a new protestant
religion.The Puritans however believed
that the newly founded church still held too many of the catholic churches
remnants.

The Puritans differed from other
nonconformist groups at the time in that instead of wanting to break off from
the church completely, they wished to reform it.After their efforts at trying to reform the
church by enlisting the help of the archbishop had failed, they decided to
solicit the help of parliament by sending them a letter entitled An Admonition
to Parliament. This venture also failed and the Puritans were left with no
choice but to break away from the Church of England all together so that they
could pursue their own beliefs.

The basis for the Puritan’s beliefs
was an emphasis on the righteousness and sovereignty of God.God, they said directed all things by
exercise of his will and directed all things to an intelligent end.This differed from the Catholic point of view
that priests were holier than the rest of the congregation.The Puritans also were more partial to the
teachings of the Old Testament.

A page from the Old
Testament book of Acts (27:30-28:6).

This is a page from
the Robert Aitken Bible, one of the very first printed in America

The Puritans view of the Old
Testament scriptures especially the story of Adam and Eve affected their views
of salvation.To them, human beings were
depraved sinners incapable of earning merit in the eyes of God.However, their belief structure provided for
God choosing those who were worthy for salvation.This predestination of sorts was a mainstay
in the Puritan religion.Believing in
predestination, they explained that all human beings were pledged by the
covenant of works to adhere to the divine law and were justly condemned for
failure to adhere to it.Meaning
basically that they had to live strictly to the divine law in every aspect of
their lives, or the threat of fire and brimstone would be realized.Even those who were predestined for salvation
could not escape the tradition of divine law.

The Puritan life in keeping true to
the divine law did everything in moderation.While they did dress in their social classes and drank alcoholic
beverages, they condemned those who would take these things to excess.Richard Baxter, a highly regarded Puritan is
quoted as saying, “Overdoing is the most ordinary way to undoing.” Undoing
meaning your condemnation to hell.

Morally, the Puritans believed that
their role in society was to be a chosen people called to create a New
Jerusalem.This was a much different
view than most of the other religions held at the time.As Calvinism has predestination as well, and
some aspects of the Puritan belief system were decidedly based on other
religions at the time, this was what set the Puritans apart from everyone else.They truly believed that they were a group
apart from the rest of organized religion.

One of the factors that set the
Puritans apart from other religions at the time, was that they held the Sabbath
in true Old Testament fashion; only reading and learning of the scriptures were
permitted.When other religions were
playing and gambling on the Sabbath, Puritans were at home quietly gaining a
better understanding of God.

When a certain situation would come
up, the rest of the Christian world had a set, preordained prayer.The Puritans however, were against this. They
believed that spontaneous expressions could not be expressed in prayer
adequately without inclusion of that spontaneous event in the prayer.The Catholic Church of the time and of the
present time still includes ritualization of liturgy in their services. The
Puritans were vehemently against this practice.This belief was most likely due to their everything in moderation
conviction.Puritanism certainly was
different from all the other religions at that time period.Throughout all the separatists groups
however, there was a similarity, persecution.